Northwood tax rate drops $1.41

Saturday

Nov 17, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Liz Markhlevskayalmark@fosters.com

NORTHWOOD — For the first time in many years, the town’s tax rate has decreased.The new tax rate, set by the state Department of Revenue Administration, is $23.20 per $1,000 assessed valuation, which is a 6 percent decrease or $1.41 lower than last year’s rate of $24.61.“This decrease represents the first time in many years that the tax rate has been decreased in Northwood,” according to Selectman Jim Hadley.The town’s portion of the new tax rate is $3.83, which is an 11 percent decrease from last year. Both the local and the state education portion of the tax rate decreased by 5 percent — the new local school portion rate is $15.92 and the state education portion of the tax rate is now $2.41.The county tax rate did not change and remains at $1.03.According to Hadley, property owners who pay $5,000 annually will see their tax bills decrease by about $577. Those who pay $4,000 in annual taxes will see their bills reduced by $462, and those who pay $3,000 in annual taxes will see a $346 reduction.Hadley said that the increases to the town’s total valuation of buildings was one of the factors that had a positive impact on Northwood’s new tax rate.Also selectmen have been operating on the default budget voters approved in March.As in previous years, selectmen also used funds from the general fund balance — the revenues above the budget and expenditures that are not spent — to “buy down the tax rate,” said Hadley.The DRA recommends municipalities maintain a balance equivalent to at least 5 percent of regular general fund revenues of the town, school, and county operations. The selectmen, however, had voted to maintain 8.7 percent in their fund balance to handle any emergencies that may occur throughout the year.They used $384,124 of the general fund balance to offset the town’s portion of the new tax rate.Hadley said selectmen are thankful the School Board returned $286,000 to the town to reduce the local education portion of the tax rate. He said the Budget Committee also did an excellent job in its review of both the school and the town budgets.New tax bills have already been sent out to residents and the bills are due Dec. 19.